No More 'Dial-a-deputy'

April 18, 1985

The blunders by the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the state attorney's office after an alleged kidnapping and armed robbery in Apopka last August have been mind-boggling. In fact, the whole mess stinks.

Smack in the middle of the mess is Sgt. Delbert Fisher of the Orange County Sheriff's Office, who never should have been involved in the case. Incredibly, he got involved because the alleged victim's father asked that his friend, Mr. Fisher, investigate the case. This whole ''dial-a-deputy'' spectacle -- the idea that a citizen could get the investigator of his choice on a case -- is intolerable. Remember, Mr. Fisher was doing his friend this favor on the county's time.

Moreover, his friendship isn't the only reason why Mr. Fisher should have stayed out or should have been kept out by his superiors or by Apopka police. He also had business ties to the father, and he knew the fathers of both a defendant and a suspect in the case. Finally, Mr. Fisher doesn't even investigate such crimes for the sheriff's office: He works on recruiting.

The whole thing unraveled during a trial last month when three members of the Apopka Police Department and Mr. Fisher offered contradicting testimony. That's bad enough, but it also pointed out a problem with the way the case was being prosecuted. The contradiction should not have caught Assistant State Attorney Irl Marcus by surprise. It's his job to know what witnesses are going to say.

Before that, prosecutors blundered by waiting until just before the trial to drop charges against another defendant -- Kevin Mueller. Mr. Mueller didn't even fit the description that the alleged victim gave before the victim identified him based on a photo. Yet for months Mr. Mueller faced the threat of a long prison sentence.

Now Sheriff Lawson Lamar and State Attorney Robert Eagan are conducting belated investigations. If Mr. Fisher withheld information about his investigation from Apopka police as they claim, he should be fired. But clearly others share responsibility.

Mr. Eagan must explain why the charges against Mr. Mueller dragged on. The prosecutor puts much of the blame on the man's attorney for refusing to participate in a lineup. Baloney. Mr. Mueller is at least half a foot shorter and 80 pounds lighter than the kidnapper as described by the victim.

As for Sheriff Lamar, he needs to make it clear that his department won't butt into cases being handled by another police department. He also needs to make clear that his investigators won't jump into cases where personal or business ties could muddy their objectivity.